Moscow museums · Unusual
Unusual · since 1912
The Museum of Music
The Russian National Museum of Music
One of the largest collections of musical instruments in the world and the only place in Russia where the instrument is shown as an object of history. One can go from horn and gusli to Murzin’s synthesiser, named with Scriabin’s initials — the machine on which the music for Solaris was written. Here too is kept the State Collection of unique instruments: Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati. The Horniman shows the instrument as ethnography and the Royal College of Music shows it as performance history; here both lines run in one room, and the electronic one continues them. One thing must be known: the collection is a working one, instruments are lent to musicians, and they are not always to be found in the case.
Minimum route
1–1.5 hours
Founded
1912
What to see
Instruments of the peoples of the world, from Russian gusli to the Japanese koto. The ANS synthesiser of Yevgeny Murzin, named with Scriabin’s initials. Autographs and manuscripts of Russian composers. The State Collection of stringed instruments, when it is in the museum.
Minimum route — 1–1.5 hours for the essentials
A little over an hour.
- 35 minutesthe instrument hall: go by geography rather than by century, which is how it is arranged.
- 15 minutesthe ANS and electronic music.
- 15 minutesmanuscripts and autographs.
Reference
About the museum
Descended from the museum of the Moscow Conservatory, founded in 1912 in memory of Nikolai Rubinstein. The present building on Fadeyeva Street was built for the museum in the 1980s. The memorial flats of Scriabin, Chaliapin and Golovanov are in its charge.
The building
A purpose-built museum of the late Soviet years: a hall lit from above for the large instruments, and a concert hall in the same block.
Good to know
The branches are more interesting than many a main building: Scriabin’s flat, with his colour-organ, survives entire and is worth a journey of its own. The State Collection of strings is not always on show — check before setting out.
What to read
Andrey Smirnov, “Sound in Z: Experiments in Sound and Electronic Music in Early 20th Century Russia” — how Theremin and Murzin were arrived at, and why the ANS in this hall is not a curiosity but a conclusion. London: Koenig Books, 2013.
ISBN 9783865607065
Getting in
How to get there
Metro Mayakovskaya or Novoslobodskaya, about ten minutes on foot from each.
Tickets
tickets online
When to go
On a day with a concert or a demonstration of instruments: a silent instrument is half a thing. The calendar of such days is worth looking at beforehand.
Contacts
music-museum.ru · +7 495 605-65-15
Of interest to children
Instruments are intelligible to children, especially when played. From 8; on demonstration days, younger.
· No. 65